UPDATE: As per a commentor, Mondello will mark 30 years as chairman next May. Apparently, the website is very far out of date.

He also served as state GOP chairman from 2006 to 2009, following the late Monroe County GOP Chairman Steve Minarik, who stepped down after a disastrous election year for the party in which it lost every single statewide race for the first time in 60 years and also saw three House seats go Democrat.

Mondello got the post largely due to his close relationship with former Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno. (Their alliance dates back to 1994 when Bruno ousted a Long Islander, the late Ralph Marino, from the majority leader seat with Mondello’s support).

Mondello lost the support of the party rank-and-file himself in 2009 and was ousted from the state GOP chairmanship by Ed Cox.

Mondello, along with most of the New York Republican establishment supported former Niagara County GOP Chairman Henry Wojtaszek, but Cox out-worked him (his most prominent supporter was Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos) and won the chairmanship.

This is the second event honoring Mondello held here in Clearwater. Yesterday former US Sen. Alfonse D’Amato, also a Long Islander, hosted a luncheon for the chairman.